New unilateral sanctions by the U.S. seek to sharpen and expand the scope of existing sanctions against the North, but with its neighbour and closest ally China opposed to it, the efficacy of the move remains ambiguous at best. Despite intense U.S. diplomatic efforts, including a visit by Secretary of State John Kerry to China in the last week of January, there has been no agreement between the two countries on the nature of the measures to be taken against a defiant North. As a result, negotiations at the U.N. for new multilateral sanctions are stuck. China has opposed the unilateral sanctions announced by the U.S.

The new sanctions regime will require the President to mandatorily investigate and designate persons and entities for violations. The law will also give more tools to the administration to enforce secondary sanctions — which are restrictions on a third country from doing business with the North.

Previous executive orders, and other pieces of Congressional legislation, covered many of the sanctioned activities contained in the new law. However, sanctions designations were largely discretionary in the hands of the President, State Department, and Treasury Department.

The bill also now covers some activity not targeted for sanctions before, such as North Korea’s metal and coal exports, and gives the U.S. government greater tools to implement so-called secondary sanctions. Since North Korean entities are often difficult to sanction directly, this could be a more effective way to cut off North Korea’s third country support networks, streams of foreign revenue, and supply chains,” according to Lisa Collins, fellow with the Korea Chair at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington D.C.

The law also provides for $50 million to support humanitarian programmes and transmit radio broadcasts into the North.